Vitamin D fortification for public health

Kellogg’s takes the lead

Vitamin D has been in the news again recently as the Kellogg’s Corporation, best known for popular breakfast cereals, decided to fortify cereals with vitamin D in the United Kingdom. Produced by the skin when exposed to UVB light (sunlight), vitamin D regulates the way we absorb calcium.  Lifestyle changes have led to more time spent indoors and less exposure to sunlight.

Low levels of vitamin D can cause chronic bone disease, including rickets and osteoporosis; recent research suggests that vitamin D deficiency may lead to a variety of chronic diseases and conditions, including MS, heart disease, high blood pressure , type 1 diabetes and some cancers.

Kellogg’s has fortified cereals since the 1980s, when it introduced folic acid to breakfast cereals, which dramatically reduced the incidence of neural tube defects.

Although the UK government has not at this time recommended fortification of food products with vitamin D,  the Kellogg’s nutrition team  decided to introduce fortification in cereal products particularly popular with children when a recent Southampton University study estimated that 20 per cent of young children  suffer from rickets, a disease which causes weak and deformed bones, previously thought to have been eliminated in the 1930s when government introduced a rationing programme that included milk and cod-liver oil. Two-thirds of UK infants had rickets prior to this time.  Health practitioners have seen a steady increase in the condition during recent years. The rest of the Kellogg’s cereal range will be fortified with vitamin D by next year.

The company’s move has received wide-ranging praise from health experts, including the British Dietetic Association.

Sources: Daily Telegraph, 2 November 2011; The Mirror, 28 October 2011; Your Wellness.net, 28 October 2011; Early Nutrition and Lifelong Health (February 2009, BMA Board of Science).

-